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Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers

Assistant Professor

North America

Current Projects

My research focuses primarily upon gender and American slavery, but I am equally fascinated with colonial and 19th century legal and economic history, especially as it pertains to women, systems of bondage, and the domestic slave trade.

My first book, They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South, which is set for publication in Spring of 2019 by Yale University Press, is a regional study that draws upon formerly enslaved people's testimony to dramatically reshape current understandings of white women's economic relationships to slavery. The book is based on my revised dissertation, which won the Organization of American Historians' 2013 Lerner-Scott Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in U.S. women's history. They Were Her Property puts narrative sources, legal documents, and financial records into conversation with each other in order to show how white women's investments in the institution shaped their gender identities and to situate them firmly at the center of 19th century America's most significant and devastating system of economic exchange. It begins by tracing white women's ideological development as slave owners from girlhood to adulthood. By doing so, it reveals that white parents raised their daughters with particular expectations related to owning slaves and taught their female progeny how to be effective slave masters. These lessons played a formative role in how white women conceptualized their personal relationships to human property, imagined the powers that they would possess once they became slave owners, and shaped their techniques of slave control. Elucidating these lifelong processes of indoctrination makes it clear why some white women did not feel compelled to relinquish control over their slaves to spouses once they married, and why they sought to manage and "master" their slaves, too. It also makes clear why many slave-owning women responded to the Civil War and adapted to its economic aftermath in the ways that they did. As a whole, this book offers more expansive and differently gendered understandings of American slavery, the trans-regional domestic slave trade, and nineteenth-century slave markets.

Education

PhD, History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, May 2012

MA, History of the United States, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, May 2007

BA, Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, May 2003

Research Interests

African-American history

The History of American Slavery

Slavery and the Law

The History of Women

Women and Early American Law

Honors & Awards

Organization of American Historians Lerner-Scott Dissertation Prize in U.S. Women's History, 2013

Fellowships & Grants

American Association of University Women Post-Doctoral Fellowship (Declined)

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers, 2017-2018

Book Reviews

Calvin Schermerhorn, The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, 1815-1860 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015), in Journal of Southern History 82, No. 2 (May 2016): 411-412.

Additional Links

The Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP) provides an opportunity for Berkeley undergraduates to work with faculty members on their cutting-edge research projects. As part of this initiative, I am working with undergraduate apprentices on several data collection projects. Detailed descriptions of my URAP projects and what apprentices will be asked to do can be found here: http://urapprojects.berkeley.edu/projects/detail.php?id_list=His0717

Students meet regularly with me (every 2 weeks) for research mentoring and may earn 1 unit of academic credit for each 3 hours of research work (limited to 4 units per term). The program is designed to stimulate awareness of advanced research and interest in graduate study. Students are not paid for their participation. However, you DO acquire experience that can be placed on your resume/CV.

If you are interested in being considered for my URAP projects you can find out more about the application process, including the actual application, here: http://research.berkeley.edu/urap/. History majors are strongly preferred. You may submit applications for no more than three URAP projects and you can work on only ONE URAP project in a semester. Interested students can submit applications online. The deadline for the Spring semester has passed.

Graduate Advising

I'd be delighted to work with graduate applicants who are interested in African-American history, the history of American slavery, slavery and the law, the history of women, and women and the law.

Letters of Recommendation for Undergraduates

I will not be able to write letters of recommendation while I am on leave.

If you are considering asking me to write a letter of recommendation for you, please be mindful of the following. I prefer to write letters of support for students who have completed two or more classes with me. Even for those students who have taken multiple courses with me, I can only write a substantive letter of support if I know you. Simply earning an "A" in the class is not enough. I have to know something about you, so it is in your best interest to make yourself known to me. Visit me during office hours (if you have a reason), actively participate in class, ask questions in and out of class if you have any. In short, set yourself apart from your classmates. If you don't do these things, there isn't much that I can write about beyond your letter grade.

Before requesting a Letter of Recommendation you should also ask yourself whether my interactions with you would allow me to evaluate you on the following factors:

Intellectual Ability

Imagination And Creativity

Social Skills

Ability In Oral Expression

Writing Ability

Quality Of Previous Work

Research Aptitude

Work Ethic

Self-Reliance/Independence

Perseverance

Suitability For Graduate School

Promise As A Professional In The Field

Graduate school admissions committees ask faculty to evaluate each student on this range of factors. In fact, I extracted these items directly from the faculty interfaces for 2017 student applications. If I cannot give graduate admissions committees my honest evaluation regarding these factors, it is best for you to request a letter from an instructor who knows you and your work well enough to do so. The best professors to do so would be those who you've had more than one small seminar-style class with and/or those with whom you've worked closely and have read and critiqued your written work.

If you consider the above and you still would like for me to write a letter for you, you must request it at least FOUR WEEKS before the deadline. Additionally, you must provide the following, without exception:

Application/Letter Deadlines.

Scholarship/Job/Graduate school to which you are applying.

Website/info about the opportunity/job/academic program.

Instructions on how/where to send/deliver recommendation letter

C.V./Resume

Application materials you plan on submitting (draft or final versions if available)

I prefer to receive all of your letter requests at once. If you plan to apply to more than 2-3 schools, I recommend that you create an Interfolio account at: https://www.interfolio.com/ which allows your letter writers to upload their letters and then allows you to send them to as many schools as you want. There is a small fee to sign up, but I find that it is worth it.

In-Class Announcements

If you would like to make an announcement that is addressed to undergraduates enrolled in my lecture courses, please email me at sejr@berkeley.edu for prior approval at least two days before you would like to visit.